Volume 5: 2012-2013

ISSN: 2041-6776
School of English

Mid-term Critical Analysis of Virginia Woolfs A Haunted House

Sophia Achillea-Hughes
This critique will analyse A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf, part of a collection of
short stories first published in 1921. Paying close attention to Woolfs linguistic choices and
experimental narrative style, I will argue that this text works to unravel the readers
expectations of a conventional ghost story.
The story opens with the indefinite phrase Whatever hour. This, considered
alongside the narrators use of the past progressive tense there was a door shutting
indicates that it is not set within a specific time frame; the haunting is an ongoing occurrence.
This sentence is also interesting because it potentially implicates the reader Whatever
hour you woke (my emphasis added). Although appearing to address us directly, the narrator
could of course also be referring to the living couple. The ambiguity of this address therefore
immediately allies us with these characters, a device which Woolf continues to use
throughout the text.
The you identified here is then seemingly differentiated from the subject of the
following sentence: From room to room they went. However, only the dash added at the
end of this sentence confirms it is the ghostly couple always searching the house. Before
this, we might assume it is the living couple opening here [or] lifting there in order to
discover the ghosts whereabouts. Thus, in just this short opening paragraph, Woolfs style of
narration works to blur the boundaries between her characters, as well as between the living
couple and the reader. As a result of this, we are encouraged to question whether the ghosts
are real, or perhaps a figment of our mutual imaginations.
Such uncertainties are undermined, however, when the point of view shifts directly to
the ghosts themselves. Reported to us through direct Here we left it, she said. And he
added, Oh, but here too! this fragmentary conversation reveals the ghosts intention;
they are searching for something they left behind. But the mystery of this search is enhanced
by deictic words such as here and it. Purposefully ambiguous, these words illustrate that
both the narrator and Woolf desire to conceal what the ghosts are looking for. This therefore
maintains our suspense, whilst also further allying us with the living couple; our perspective
is as limited and uncertain as theirs. Throughout the text, then, the narrator remains an
unauthoritative and unidentified voice; perhaps suggesting even they occupy a haunted
space.
As the story continues the perspective becomes increasingly more difficult to follow.
The reader is forced to divide their attention between the ghosts, the living couple, and even
for a brief time our unidentified narrator. In the third paragraph they are depicted both as
reader one might say, and so read on a page or two and writer stopping the pencil
on the margin. This, according to Christine Reynier, highlights the story of the creative
process itself, thereby drawing attention to the text as a work of fiction. 1 However, I would
1

Christine Reynier, Virginia Woolfs Ethics of the Short Story (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p. 105

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argue that by placing her narrator inside the story, Woolf cleverly blurs those boundaries
between fiction and reality, a device which is particularly pertinent to the supernatural genre.
It leaves the reader to question whether the ghosts are a reality, or perhaps just a trick of the
creative imagination.
Within the same paragraph the narrator goes on to describe the empty house, noting
only the wood pigeons bubbling with content and the hum of the threshing machine []
from the farm. Ironically then, in spite of the ghosts elusive presence, they do not incite a
deathly silence within the house. In fact, by using onomatopoeic words such as bubbling
and hum, Woolf shows instead how they bring the house to life. This idea, considered
alongside the sibilant refrain Safe, safe, safe, works to reassure the reader that the ghosts are
not threatening, an obvious deviation from the conventional ghost story in which they are
supposed to instil fear.
The perspective then shifts abruptly to the female character of the living couple:
What did I come in here for? What did I want to find? These anaphoric interrogatives
underline her own self-doubt; she is questioning her search for the ghosts because she, like
the narrator, has nothing to prove they exist My hands were empty. Interrupting her
thoughts briefly is a fragment of the ghosts conversation Perhaps its upstairs then?
though they drift out of focus again immediately after. In the same way the ghosts move
From room to room, then, Woolfs style of narration moves swiftly from one characters
train of thought to the next. This serves two purposes: it highlights the ephemerality of the
ghosts, whilst ensuring we are always aware of the competing presences within the house: the
ghostly couple searching for their treasure and the living couple following close behind.
In the subsequent paragraph the female character draws our attention to the idea that
seeing is believing: Not that one could ever see them. The window panes reflected apples,
reflected roses: all the leaves were green in the glass. For her, the mirrored images of the
garden are a stark reminder of reality, of the visible, physical surroundings, rather than what
she imagines to be there. This therefore adds to her uncertainties about the ghosts. However,
in much of Woolfs writing, windows are intended to highlight the distance between [the]
subject and object of vision.2 Here then, the reflection is not meant to make her question the
ghosts, but simply reinforce the barrier that separates her from them: the barrier between life
and death. Alternatively, one could say that the windows only reflect a version of reality,
contributing to the texts dream-like quality.
From this point it is as if the woman is trying to convince her own mind, as well as the
readers, of the ghosts presence within the house: if the door was open, spread about the
floor, hung upon the walls, pendant from the ceiling. This brief interior monologue
effectively pulls the reader into the story, allowing us to follow the characters train of
thought, and her conviction that the ghost is there. However, the dash and clipped
interrogative ( what?) interrupts this, indicating once again that she is self-doubtful.
Throughout the text, then, this character is caught between alternating moments of certainty
and uncertainty, highlighted by Woolfs contrasting use of light and dark.
We can identify this contrast in the following paragraph when the light and the
womans understanding of the buried treasure both fade. However, crucially within the text,
light is not only metaphorical of certainty, or understanding, but also more importantly of
love. This becomes apparent here from the connection between death and darkness; for the
male ghost, the death of his love was equivalent to the death of light itself sealing all the
windows; the rooms were darkened. Within this paragraph glass is also an important motif,
once again becoming a symbol of separation. We are told how the beam [] always burnt
behind the glass, and is therefore constantly out of reach for the man. The fact he goes
2

Savina Stevanato, Visuality and Spatiality in Virginia Woolfs Fiction (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2012),p. 117

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Mid-term Critical Analysis of Virginia Woolfs A Haunted House

travelling went North, went East, saw the stars turned in the Southern sky but still
returns to the houses emphasises how important it was to them as a couple. Thus, in this
somewhat poetic paragraph Woolf allows her reader an insight into the ghosts past,
encouraging sympathy rather than fear.
Moving back to the present time the narrator then describes the natural environment
of the house as the ghostly couple continue to wander through it. The consistent use of
personification The wind roars, Trees stoop and bend, Moonbeams splash and spill
allows a clear paradox to emerge within the text; in spite of the ghosts intrinsic
connection to death, their presence seems only to reanimate the house. The broken
conversation that follows between the ghosts only allows the reader fragments of their
thoughts: Here we slept, she says. And he adds, Kisses without number. Waking in the
morning Silver between the trees . Consequently, the mystery of the ghosts buried
treasure is prolonged suspense being perhaps the only convention of the traditional ghost
story which Woolf adheres to strictly. However, this fragmentary conversation could also
represent the living couples drift in and out of consciousness. Whichever way we choose to
interpret it, Reynier argues this distinct lack of information makes the reader empathetic
towards the living couple; we become just as impatient to know what the ghosts are looking
for.3 Thus, Woolfs narrative works mostly to unite the reader and the living couple. Aside
from our awareness of the ghosts past, we see, hear and feel everything as the living couple
do.
The contrast between light and dark is used once again in the concluding paragraph:
Stooping, their light lifts the lids upon my eyes. Of course, as with the rest of the text we
cannot be entirely sure whose perspective this is from. Although it appears to be the living
female characters perspective, one could argue the I at the end of the story represents hers
and the narrators simultaneous moment of realisation. While the light here literally awakens
the woman, it also symbolises her revelation about the treasure The light in the heart. As
the narrative comes to an end, the writing builds to an almost audible crescendo: Safe, safe,
safe, the heart of the house beats proudlySafe! safe! safe! the pulse of the house beats
wildly. The shift in adverbs from proudly to wildly emphasises this as a climactic
moment: the moment everyone (including the narrator, the living couple, and the reader)
realises that the treasure is not a concrete, material object at all; it is, in fact, a symbol of love.
Indeed, the storys conclusion allows us to see that the ghosts were only ever looking to
remind themselves of the love they shared within this space. Thus, Woolf subverts our
expectations of A Haunted House entirely; here the house is haunted not by the ghosts
themselves, but by the memories they made there.
Analysis of this text therefore reveals that A Haunted House is neither a conventional
ghost story, nor a conventional love story; Woolf manages to permeate the boundary between
the genres. When looking at its title, the reader presupposes that this is going to be an
explicitly scary narrative. However, through her experimental narrative style and poetic
devices, Woolf completely undermines this expectation. She allows the reader an insight into
the thoughts and feelings of the ghosts themselves; those characters that are usually denied a
voice. And, by the end of the text the reader is less concerned with the ghosts themselves, and
more concerned with the meaning of what they are looking for. Woolf achieves a similar
effect on the reader in A Mark on the Wall where the reader becomes preoccupied by the
narrators wandering thoughts, rather than what the mark actually is. In both of these
examples, then, Woolf uses the pretext of something simple or conventional to actually
address a much larger idea. Thus, in A Haunted House Woolf uses the pretext of the ghost
story to write implicitly about the importance of love.
3

Reynier, p.107

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Bibliography
Primary sources
Woolf, V., A Haunted House and Other Short Stories, A Haunted House (London: The
Hogarth Press, 1953) pp. 9-11
Secondary sources
Reynier, Christine, Virginia Woolfs Ethics of the Short Story (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2009)
Stevanato, Savina, Visuality and Spatiality in Virginia Woolfs Fiction (Oxford: Peter Lang,
2012)

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